Honorable Festivity: An Oxymoron? | Prof. Michael Foley

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Prof. Michael Foley: Thank you very much, and it's a real delight to be with you on

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Prof. Michael Foley: this intellectual retreat together.

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Prof. Michael Foley: I've had some experiences teaching or talking, to Mystic

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Prof. Michael Foley: Institute chapters, but this is the first retreat that I've been

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Prof. Michael Foley: a part of.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And what a fun theme.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And as father mentioned earlier tonight, perhaps a fitting contrast

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Prof. Michael Foley: is spring break, which is breaking out across the country where we

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Prof. Michael Foley: see many examples perhaps of dishonorable festivity.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And that's one of the reasons why I raised the question whether

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Prof. Michael Foley: honorable festivity is an oxymoron,

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Prof. Michael Foley: which you may recall is a figure of speech in which

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Prof. Michael Foley: seemingly contradictory terms appear side by

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Prof. Michael Foley: side.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The word oxymoron is an oxymoron because

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Prof. Michael Foley: oxy is Greek for sharp and moron is Greek

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Prof. Michael Foley: for dull.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And, of course, there are all sorts of running jokes about whether certain terms

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Prof. Michael Foley: in our language are oxymorons.

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Prof. Michael Foley: For example, military intelligence,

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Prof. Michael Foley: business ethics,

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Prof. Michael Foley: cancel culture,

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Prof. Michael Foley: which I thought was really astute because if it's canceling, it's not a culture.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

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Prof. Michael Foley: It's a negation.

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Prof. Michael Foley: But my personal favorite, Microsoft Works.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So the question for tonight is,

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Prof. Michael Foley: is honorable festivity one of these oxymorons?

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Prof. Michael Foley: Because if I mentioned to you festivity,

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Prof. Michael Foley: feasting, partying, what images come to mind?

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Prof. Michael Foley: Are they images perhaps of excess,

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Prof. Michael Foley: right, of a a lack of decorum perhaps?

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Prof. Michael Foley: Whereas if I ask you to picture something honorable,

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Prof. Michael Foley: you might picture someone doing the right thing but maybe not having a lot

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Prof. Michael Foley: of fun.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Dying for your country is honorable.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Probably not a lot of fun.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

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Prof. Michael Foley: So to think of this in terms of Plato's three parts of the soul,

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Prof. Michael Foley: it's it's as if festivity is all the physical appetites,

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Prof. Michael Foley: whereas honor is just simply spiritedness, thumas, seeking

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Prof. Michael Foley: glory, but this is like oil and water.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

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Prof. Michael Foley: So how do we sort of put these two things together?

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Prof. Michael Foley: Well, let me cut to the chase and say, I do believe these

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Prof. Michael Foley: two things can be put together.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And therefore, in a sense, it's not an oxymoron.

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Prof. Michael Foley: It's not an intrinsic contradiction.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And I will simply rely on the authority of Saint Paul who states,

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Prof. Michael Foley: whatever you eat or drink or whatever else you do,

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Prof. Michael Foley: do all to the glory of God.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So according to Saint Paul, you can

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Prof. Michael Foley: eat and drink to the glory of God.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So what I'm going to do tonight

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Prof. Michael Foley: is defend that thesis in three parts.

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Prof. Michael Foley: First, I would like to discuss the human

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Prof. Michael Foley: transformation of our physical appetites,

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Prof. Michael Foley: our animal appetites.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Second, I would like to talk about the Catholic transformation

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Prof. Michael Foley: of that human transformation.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And then third, I would like to discuss some modern complications

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Prof. Michael Foley: to honorable festivity and how we might respond to

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Prof. Michael Foley: them.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So number one,

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Prof. Michael Foley: there is a human transformation

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Prof. Michael Foley: of our basic biological desire to eat

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Prof. Michael Foley: and survive and gain nutrition.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The strange thing about human feasting is that it is

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Prof. Michael Foley: based on a very low biological act that in

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Prof. Michael Foley: a sense seeks to be high and dramatic.

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Prof. Michael Foley: I turn to an insight from father Bernard Lonergan, who was a disciple

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Prof. Michael Foley: of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Human desires are not simply the biological

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Prof. Michael Foley: impulses of hunger for eating.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Indeed, man is an animal for whom mere

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Prof. Michael Foley: animality is indecent.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Think about that line.

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Prof. Michael Foley: It's a great line.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Man is an animal for whom mere animality

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Prof. Michael Foley: is indecent.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So we have a basic desire for clothes, and yet

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Prof. Michael Foley: we don't simply choose clothes for protection.

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Prof. Michael Foley: We choose clothes to make a statement.

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Prof. Michael Foley: We choose clothes to enter into the drama of human existence

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Prof. Michael Foley: in a certain key.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

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Prof. Michael Foley: It's not just a symbol of mere practicality.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And it is true that eating and drinking are biological performances.

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Prof. Michael Foley: But in man, they are dignified by their spatial

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Prof. Michael Foley: and psychological separation from the farm,

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Prof. Michael Foley: the slaughterhouse, the kitchen.

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Prof. Michael Foley: They are ornamented by the elaborate equipment of the dining room,

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Prof. Michael Foley: by the table manners imposed upon children,

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Prof. Michael Foley: by the deportment of adult convention.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Not only then is man capable of aesthetic liberation

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Prof. Michael Foley: from the drag of biological purposeness purposiveness

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Prof. Michael Foley: and artistic creativity,

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Prof. Michael Foley: but his first work of art is his own

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Prof. Michael Foley: living.

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Prof. Michael Foley: That is to say, we take this base act of

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Prof. Michael Foley: eating, which we share with the rest of the animal kingdom,

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Prof. Michael Foley: and we turn it into a work of art.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Think of Downton Abbey

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Prof. Michael Foley: and the etiquette of dining, how every night was, in a

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Prof. Michael Foley: sense, a performance,

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Prof. Michael Foley: a grand high opera.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

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Prof. Michael Foley: So there is a human cultural transformation

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Prof. Michael Foley: of this this very simple act of eating.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And we do this all the time, but isn't that kinda weird that

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Prof. Michael Foley: we would do that?

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Prof. Michael Foley: Dogs don't worry about this.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Cows don't worry about it.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And yet we've taken this simple act and turned it into something

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Prof. Michael Foley: dramatic.

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Prof. Michael Foley: There are two peculiarities that can be noted from this

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Prof. Michael Foley: theatrical appropriation of the biological.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The first is the tension between the shareable and the unshareable.

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Prof. Michael Foley: What I mean is this.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Let's be honest.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Eating is an essentially unshareable act.

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Prof. Michael Foley: That is to say, you know, if I bring in a pizza pizza

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Prof. Michael Foley: fortunately, we've all eaten, so I'm not gonna make any of you hungry right

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Prof. Michael Foley: now.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And, you know, I pass the pizza around, I'm sharing.

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Prof. Michael Foley: But it's but the more I share, the less pizza there is.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So it sure.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Sharing a pizza is possible, but it's not a perfectly shareable good.

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Prof. Michael Foley: It's not a perfectly shareable good.

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Prof. Michael Foley: On the other hand, things like knowledge or virtue are perfectly

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Prof. Michael Foley: shareable goods.

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Prof. Michael Foley: If I teach you that two plus two is four, that doesn't mean there's

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Prof. Michael Foley: less of that knowledge in my head.

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Prof. Michael Foley: If I teach you how to be courageous, that doesn't mean that, well,

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Prof. Michael Foley: now I've gotta be a coward because there's less courage.

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Prof. Michael Foley: I gave you some, and now I don't have any.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

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Prof. Michael Foley: So there are some goods that are not perfectly shareable.

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Prof. Michael Foley: There are others that are.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Food is not a perfectly shareable good.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And yet what's fascinating about our conventions of dining and feasting

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Prof. Michael Foley: is that we yoke it to good dining, good

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Prof. Michael Foley: feasting, to perfectly shareable goods.

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Prof. Michael Foley: We we yoke it to things like conversation

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Prof. Michael Foley: and a goal to sort of ascend

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Prof. Michael Foley: to things like wisdom, which are perfectly shareable goods.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The second peculiarity is similar to the first.

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Prof. Michael Foley: As I've said, eating is essentially a low activity in in the service of

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Prof. Michael Foley: the lowest part of ourselves.

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Prof. Michael Foley: We eat to nourish our bodies and then our bodies digest what we

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Prof. Michael Foley: eat.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And yet, with the art of feasting, we gladly join the body's

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Prof. Michael Foley: lowest functions to some of the soul's highest activities,

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Prof. Michael Foley: to fellowship, to a discussion of ideas, to an experience

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Prof. Michael Foley: of music, to wit and to banter, to high romance,

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Prof. Michael Foley: to family memories.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Feasting involves a marriage of high and low.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Never mind that different cultures define the high and low differently.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The interesting point is every culture maintains

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Prof. Michael Foley: this distinction of high and low and yokes it

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Prof. Michael Foley: in the etiquette of sharing a meal.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Nathaniel Hawthorne in House of the Seven Gables has a great

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Prof. Michael Foley: description of the sublime effects of drinking a cup

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Prof. Michael Foley: of coffee.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The subtle essence acted on him like a charmed

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Prof. Michael Foley: draft

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Prof. Michael Foley: and caused the opaque substance of his animal being

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Prof. Michael Foley: to grow transparent or at least

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Prof. Michael Foley: translucent

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Prof. Michael Foley: so that a spiritual glean was transmitted through it

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Prof. Michael Foley: with a clearer luster than hitherto.

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Prof. Michael Foley: I love that description.

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Prof. Michael Foley: I think it is true for coffee, but I also think it's true for

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Prof. Michael Foley: dining in general.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Making our opaque animal substance

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Prof. Michael Foley: translucent with spiritual gleams.

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Prof. Michael Foley: That is the function of a good cup of java, and it is the

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Prof. Michael Foley: goal of all fine dining and meal sharing.

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Prof. Michael Foley: In the great movie and story, Babette's Feast, the Danish puritanical

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Prof. Michael Foley: dinner guests agree not to be epicurean or sibiritic

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Prof. Michael Foley: in their praise of Babette's French culinary skills,

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Prof. Michael Foley: But they still enjoy the meal, rightly preferring wine to water.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The result is a veritable sacramental event where the low is

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Prof. Michael Foley: subsumed into the high and energizes the high with the guests

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Prof. Michael Foley: praising God in a hymn afterwards around the town

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Prof. Michael Foley: well.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So this brings me to my second point.

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Prof. Michael Foley: So the the human, the cultural transforms the mere animal,

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Prof. Michael Foley: the mere biological, and then the Catholic

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Prof. Michael Foley: transforms that.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Just as the dramatic nature of man transforms

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Prof. Michael Foley: feeding into dining,

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Prof. Michael Foley: so too does the new covenant transform at least one act of dining

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Prof. Michael Foley: into something sacred and sanctifying.

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Prof. Michael Foley: The Eucharist,

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Prof. Michael Foley: instituted during the most important and solemn dining event

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Prof. Michael Foley: of the Jewish

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Prof. Michael Foley: year, involves the consumption of a food and drink that perfectly unites the shareable

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Prof. Michael Foley: and the unshareable, the high and the low.

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Prof. Michael Foley: God lowered himself greatly when he became human through the mystery of the incarnation,

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Prof. Michael Foley: and he lowered himself further when he took the form of a servant,

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Prof. Michael Foley: but he lowered himself most of all when he took the form

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Prof. Michael Foley: of our food.

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Prof. Michael Foley: For food is far lower on the ladder of being than

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Prof. Michael Foley: the slave who prepares it or the master who eats it.

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Prof. Michael Foley: In the Eucharist then, the most high becomes the

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Prof. Michael Foley: most low.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Similarly, the Eucharist, like the miracles of the loaves and fishes that anticipated

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Prof. Michael Foley: it, rewrites the rules of the shareable and the unshareable,

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Prof. Michael Foley: with even the smallest particle of the host containing the entire

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Prof. Michael Foley: and entirely shareable person of Jesus Christ.

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Prof. Michael Foley: And in addition to the holy sacrifice of the mass, early Christians

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Prof. Michael Foley: also hosted a separate meal after the service called

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Prof. Michael Foley: the agape or love feast, in which regular

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Prof. Michael Foley: food and drink were shared in fellowship.

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Prof. Michael Foley: It is noteworthy that the early church named this earthly non sacramental

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Prof. Michael Foley: feast after the perfectly shareable and divinely infused theological

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Prof. Michael Foley: virtue of caritas or agape,

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Prof. Michael Foley: even though strictly speaking, the love feast was about the distribution of goods

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Prof. Michael Foley: that are not perfectly shareable and the quelling of

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Prof. Michael Foley: unshareable appetites.

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Prof. Michael Foley: I suspect the reason is that one of the aims of the

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Prof. Michael Foley: love feast was feeding the poor.

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Prof. Michael Foley: In the first recorded liturgical crisis of the church, Saint

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Prof. Michael Foley: Paul criticizes the Corinthians for not sharing with

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Prof. Michael Foley: the have nots at a love feast.

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Prof. Michael Foley: Caritas as the shareable love of God and neighbor

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Prof. Michael Foley: is supposed to elevate and transform

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Prof. Michael Foley: our unshareable urges and needs.

00:14:21.985 --> 00:14:25.985
Prof. Michael Foley: Saint Augustine defended the Agape meals by writing,

00:14:26.305 --> 00:14:30.305
Prof. Michael Foley: the poor feed on produce or meat.

00:14:30.990 --> 00:14:33.390
Prof. Michael Foley: Thanks to the generosity of the rich.

00:14:33.390 --> 00:14:37.390
Prof. Michael Foley: That is a creature of God is fed by a creature

00:14:37.470 --> 00:14:41.470
Prof. Michael Foley: of God, which is in accord with human dining.

00:14:43.515 --> 00:14:47.515
Prof. Michael Foley: We'll return to Augustine's statement, a creature of God is

00:14:47.675 --> 00:14:51.035
Prof. Michael Foley: fed by a creature of God in a few moments.

00:14:51.035 --> 00:14:55.035
Prof. Michael Foley: For now, it is worth noting that even after the demise

00:14:55.195 --> 00:14:59.195
Prof. Michael Foley: of the agape meal in the Western churches,

00:14:59.330 --> 00:15:03.330
Prof. Michael Foley: liturgically oriented feasting has remained a staple of Catholic

00:15:03.410 --> 00:15:05.010
Prof. Michael Foley: life,

00:15:05.010 --> 00:15:09.010
Prof. Michael Foley: and such feasting traditionally includes the less fortunate.

00:15:10.450 --> 00:15:14.450
Prof. Michael Foley: To this day, the most festive season of the year,

00:15:14.515 --> 00:15:18.515
Prof. Michael Foley: Christmas time, also remains the season most

00:15:18.675 --> 00:15:21.475
Prof. Michael Foley: aware of the less fortunate.

00:15:21.475 --> 00:15:24.675
Prof. Michael Foley: With hymns like Good King Wenceslaus

00:15:24.675 --> 00:15:28.675
Prof. Michael Foley: telling stories about Saint Nicholas throwing bags of coins down a

00:15:28.755 --> 00:15:32.755
Prof. Michael Foley: poor man's chimney, and customs like Boxing Day

00:15:33.050 --> 00:15:37.050
Prof. Michael Foley: reminding us during this holy time of the importance of charity

00:15:37.050 --> 00:15:39.450
Prof. Michael Foley: to the poor.

00:15:39.450 --> 00:15:43.450
Prof. Michael Foley: And I would point out in this season of Lent,

00:15:43.985 --> 00:15:47.985
Prof. Michael Foley: just as feasting was attached to the poor, so

00:15:47.985 --> 00:15:49.985
Prof. Michael Foley: was fasting.

00:15:49.985 --> 00:15:53.985
Prof. Michael Foley: The great fast of Lent is not simply a means of pruning

00:15:54.065 --> 00:15:58.065
Prof. Michael Foley: and restraining one's appetites, though it is that

00:15:58.470 --> 00:16:02.310
Prof. Michael Foley: It is also an act of charity and generosity.

00:16:02.310 --> 00:16:06.310
Prof. Michael Foley: From the earliest centuries, the church has emphasized that Lenten

00:16:06.870 --> 00:16:10.870
Prof. Michael Foley: asceticism is meant to increase our love of God and of our

00:16:11.030 --> 00:16:13.165
Prof. Michael Foley: brothers in need.

00:16:13.165 --> 00:16:17.165
Prof. Michael Foley: Money saved because of fasting, for example,

00:16:17.325 --> 00:16:21.165
Prof. Michael Foley: should be given to the impoverished.

00:16:21.165 --> 00:16:25.165
Prof. Michael Foley: As Pope Saint Leo the Great put it, may the abstinence of the fasters

00:16:26.045 --> 00:16:30.000
Prof. Michael Foley: be the refreshment of the poor.

00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.000
Prof. Michael Foley: And in the words, the beautiful words of the Maronite liturgy,

00:16:34.400 --> 00:16:38.400
Prof. Michael Foley: how splendid is fasting that is adorned with charity.

00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:41.955
Prof. Michael Foley: Break your bread generously with one who is hungry.

00:16:41.955 --> 00:16:45.955
Prof. Michael Foley: Otherwise, yours is not fasting, but saving.

00:16:48.995 --> 00:16:52.755
Prof. Michael Foley: So that is the the Catholic transformation

00:16:52.755 --> 00:16:55.880
Prof. Michael Foley: of human feasting and dining.

00:16:55.880 --> 00:16:59.880
Prof. Michael Foley: But in the third part, I'd like to talk about a couple of

00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:04.120
Prof. Michael Foley: things in modernity that complicate

00:17:04.120 --> 00:17:07.400
Prof. Michael Foley: these transformations.

00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:11.400
Prof. Michael Foley: There are three modern developments that are particularly challenging

00:17:11.635 --> 00:17:13.075
Prof. Michael Foley: for us today.

00:17:13.075 --> 00:17:17.075
Prof. Michael Foley: And I'd love to hear your thoughts about this afterwards.

00:17:17.635 --> 00:17:19.795
Prof. Michael Foley: The first complication

00:17:19.795 --> 00:17:23.795
Prof. Michael Foley: is the relatively recent decline of the family dinner.

00:17:25.910 --> 00:17:29.910
Prof. Michael Foley: The American College of Pediatricians reports that family time at the dinner table

00:17:30.470 --> 00:17:34.470
Prof. Michael Foley: and family conversation in general has declined by more

00:17:34.470 --> 00:17:38.470
Prof. Michael Foley: than thirty percent in thirty years.

00:17:39.435 --> 00:17:42.475
Prof. Michael Foley: That's an astonishing drop.

00:17:42.475 --> 00:17:46.475
Prof. Michael Foley: One study suggests the decline is not that bad overall, but that low

00:17:46.795 --> 00:17:50.795
Prof. Michael Foley: income families have suffered disproportionately from this trend

00:17:50.955 --> 00:17:54.955
Prof. Michael Foley: because the parents have less control over their work schedule.

00:17:56.210 --> 00:18:00.210
Prof. Michael Foley: But we do know this, the loss of the family meal

00:18:00.530 --> 00:18:04.530
Prof. Michael Foley: is statistically linked among children and teens

00:18:05.330 --> 00:18:09.330
Prof. Michael Foley: to increased substance abuse, unwanted pregnancies,

00:18:10.505 --> 00:18:14.505
Prof. Michael Foley: depression, obesity, lower academic performance,

00:18:15.705 --> 00:18:18.025
Prof. Michael Foley: smaller vocabularies,

00:18:18.025 --> 00:18:21.880
Prof. Michael Foley: and reduced literary skills.

00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:25.880
Prof. Michael Foley: Among adults, the decline in the family meal correlates to poor mental and

00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:29.960
Prof. Michael Foley: physical health and higher divorce rates.

00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:35.000
Prof. Michael Foley: Even dining among nonrelated adults

00:18:35.285 --> 00:18:38.325
Prof. Michael Foley: brings blessings to the group.

00:18:38.325 --> 00:18:42.325
Prof. Michael Foley: For example, they have done studies that have concluded

00:18:42.565 --> 00:18:44.885
Prof. Michael Foley: that firefighters

00:18:44.885 --> 00:18:48.885
Prof. Michael Foley: who have meals together have enhanced team performance.

00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:52.100
Prof. Michael Foley: Do you know that's one of the things about fire departments?

00:18:52.100 --> 00:18:56.100
Prof. Michael Foley: They're like on call for seventy two hours and they have to cook

00:18:56.100 --> 00:18:57.460
Prof. Michael Foley: for each other.

00:18:57.460 --> 00:19:01.460
Prof. Michael Foley: Unlike policemen, firemen always cook their own meals and eat

00:19:01.635 --> 00:19:04.275
Prof. Michael Foley: together when they're on duty.

00:19:04.275 --> 00:19:08.275
Prof. Michael Foley: When my wife sees a a member of the Waco Fire Department in the

00:19:08.355 --> 00:19:12.355
Prof. Michael Foley: grocery store, she's always really happy because she knows he's cooking for his friends.

00:19:14.360 --> 00:19:17.160
Prof. Michael Foley: So that's pretty cool.

00:19:17.160 --> 00:19:21.160
Prof. Michael Foley: So the more we lose that, the more we lose the family dinner

00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:25.160
Prof. Michael Foley: because of our fluid society, the more it's gonna hurt these

00:19:25.320 --> 00:19:29.320
Prof. Michael Foley: these other transformations that I was talking about.

00:19:30.305 --> 00:19:34.305
Prof. Michael Foley: A second complication is what I call socioeconomic

00:19:34.625 --> 00:19:36.945
Prof. Michael Foley: segregation.

00:19:36.945 --> 00:19:40.945
Prof. Michael Foley: Maria Montessori, founder of the famous Montessori schools, has an interesting

00:19:41.185 --> 00:19:41.665
Prof. Michael Foley: argument.

00:19:41.665 --> 00:19:45.665
Prof. Michael Foley: She contends that prior to the twentieth century, rich and poor

00:19:45.960 --> 00:19:49.960
Prof. Michael Foley: lived cheek to jowl in the same neighborhoods, and that

00:19:50.040 --> 00:19:54.040
Prof. Michael Foley: this arrangement made it easier for the rich to be kind to the poor.

00:19:54.920 --> 00:19:58.920
Prof. Michael Foley: As we see in the childhood stories of the kind princess who sends

00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:02.920
Prof. Michael Foley: help to the poor cottage next door, or of the good children

00:20:03.075 --> 00:20:06.835
Prof. Michael Foley: from the great house who carry food to the sick women in the neighboring

00:20:06.835 --> 00:20:08.515
Prof. Michael Foley: attic.

00:20:08.515 --> 00:20:12.515
Prof. Michael Foley: Today, our mono functional zoning laws combined with

00:20:12.515 --> 00:20:16.515
Prof. Michael Foley: the economic principles of the real estate market make it less likely

00:20:16.770 --> 00:20:20.770
Prof. Michael Foley: that rich and poor will live in the same neighborhood or even attend the

00:20:20.770 --> 00:20:22.770
Prof. Michael Foley: same parish.

00:20:22.770 --> 00:20:26.770
Prof. Michael Foley: This form of segregation makes it more difficult to exercise traditional

00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:29.165
Prof. Michael Foley: expressions of charity.

00:20:29.165 --> 00:20:32.845
Prof. Michael Foley: To give one example, there is an old custom from France that one cannot

00:20:32.845 --> 00:20:36.845
Prof. Michael Foley: eat the Christmas bread, the Christmas loaf,

00:20:37.085 --> 00:20:41.085
Prof. Michael Foley: until one has given a quarter of it to a poor person.

00:20:41.970 --> 00:20:45.890
Prof. Michael Foley: If I were to practice this custom today in my adopted hometown of Waco,

00:20:45.890 --> 00:20:49.890
Prof. Michael Foley: Texas, I'd have to drive several miles from my suburban home

00:20:50.930 --> 00:20:54.930
Prof. Michael Foley: either to the downtown area in the hopes of finding a homeless person

00:20:55.015 --> 00:20:58.535
Prof. Michael Foley: or to a bad neighborhood and risk getting shot at.

00:20:58.535 --> 00:21:01.655
Prof. Michael Foley: And not without good reason for I would truly look like an idiot as

00:21:01.655 --> 00:21:05.175
Prof. Michael Foley: I drove around waving a quarter of a loaf of bread and offering it

00:21:05.175 --> 00:21:07.740
Prof. Michael Foley: to strangers.

00:21:07.740 --> 00:21:11.260
Prof. Michael Foley: I do not have a solution to this problem, but at the very least,

00:21:11.260 --> 00:21:14.060
Prof. Michael Foley: I think that it is good to be aware of it.

00:21:14.060 --> 00:21:18.060
Prof. Michael Foley: That traditional Christian feasting always included

00:21:19.020 --> 00:21:23.020
Prof. Michael Foley: an awareness of the poor and a desire to

00:21:23.275 --> 00:21:27.275
Prof. Michael Foley: to to share that that unshareable banquet with them.

00:21:27.755 --> 00:21:31.355
Prof. Michael Foley: And even if it's harder or more complicated for us to practice it, I

00:21:31.355 --> 00:21:35.355
Prof. Michael Foley: think it's it's an important thing to keep in mind.

00:21:35.620 --> 00:21:37.940
Prof. Michael Foley: The last complication

00:21:37.940 --> 00:21:40.420
Prof. Michael Foley: is an odd one.

00:21:40.420 --> 00:21:43.060
Prof. Michael Foley: Describing a sense declines

00:21:43.060 --> 00:21:47.060
Prof. Michael Foley: in dining practice, this may be almost sort of the opposite.

00:21:47.860 --> 00:21:50.260
Prof. Michael Foley: A strange

00:21:50.260 --> 00:21:52.875
Prof. Michael Foley: well, I'll just read it to you.

00:21:52.875 --> 00:21:56.875
Prof. Michael Foley: There's a a wonderful scholar named Mary Eberstadt

00:21:57.515 --> 00:22:01.515
Prof. Michael Foley: who, couple well, about a decade or so ago,

00:22:02.155 --> 00:22:06.155
Prof. Michael Foley: wrote an article entitled, is food the new

00:22:06.380 --> 00:22:09.340
Prof. Michael Foley: sex?

00:22:09.340 --> 00:22:13.340
Prof. Michael Foley: She astutely observes that the contemporary West has

00:22:13.340 --> 00:22:17.340
Prof. Michael Foley: reversed its morality concerning food and sexual intimacy.

00:22:19.625 --> 00:22:23.625
Prof. Michael Foley: Whereas the previous generations were relatively indifferent

00:22:24.105 --> 00:22:28.105
Prof. Michael Foley: about what foods they ate and morally exacting about

00:22:28.185 --> 00:22:32.185
Prof. Michael Foley: the use and abuse of the procreative act,

00:22:32.500 --> 00:22:34.900
Prof. Michael Foley: today's citizens,

00:22:34.900 --> 00:22:36.740
Prof. Michael Foley: it's the opposite.

00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:40.740
Prof. Michael Foley: For today's citizens, there is a growing list

00:22:40.820 --> 00:22:44.820
Prof. Michael Foley: of morally charged verboten's about food

00:22:45.605 --> 00:22:49.605
Prof. Michael Foley: and a shrinking list of morally forbidden venereal

00:22:49.845 --> 00:22:52.085
Prof. Michael Foley: acts.

00:22:52.085 --> 00:22:56.085
Prof. Michael Foley: Put bluntly, Eberstadt concludes, we live in an age of

00:22:56.165 --> 00:23:00.165
Prof. Michael Foley: mindful eating and mindless sex.

00:23:01.360 --> 00:23:05.360
Prof. Michael Foley: Mindful eating includes opposition to eating flesh

00:23:05.520 --> 00:23:09.520
Prof. Michael Foley: meat or endangered fish, to industrialized breeding

00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:13.840
Prof. Michael Foley: and farm factory slaughtering, to genetically modified

00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:17.920
Prof. Michael Foley: fruits and vegetables, and to pesticides and other

00:23:18.035 --> 00:23:20.195
Prof. Michael Foley: artificial agents.

00:23:20.195 --> 00:23:24.195
Prof. Michael Foley: It tends to be wary of gluten, trans fats,

00:23:24.435 --> 00:23:28.435
Prof. Michael Foley: dairy products, and fond of such terms as organic,

00:23:28.995 --> 00:23:32.330
Prof. Michael Foley: free range, grass fed,

00:23:32.330 --> 00:23:36.330
Prof. Michael Foley: free trade, sustainable, and local.

00:23:37.690 --> 00:23:40.250
Prof. Michael Foley: Now I'm not necessarily saying I'm opposed to any of this.

00:23:40.250 --> 00:23:43.610
Prof. Michael Foley: I'm actually kind of a crunchy con, in my own way.

00:23:43.610 --> 00:23:45.225
Prof. Michael Foley: So

00:23:45.225 --> 00:23:49.225
Prof. Michael Foley: and I don't think that this mindful eating is necessarily

00:23:49.385 --> 00:23:53.385
Prof. Michael Foley: opposed to what we might call traditional sacramental eating,

00:23:53.545 --> 00:23:56.025
Prof. Michael Foley: but it does complicate things.

00:23:56.025 --> 00:24:00.025
Prof. Michael Foley: The new focus on both the morality and nutritional value of food

00:24:01.090 --> 00:24:05.090
Prof. Michael Foley: has the potential to turn the simple and unifying act of breaking

00:24:05.090 --> 00:24:09.090
Prof. Michael Foley: bread into an endlessly divisive ethical quagmire.

00:24:10.610 --> 00:24:14.130
Prof. Michael Foley: Aside from issues of health and fitness, we must now worry about how the

00:24:14.130 --> 00:24:17.815
Prof. Michael Foley: animals we eat were treated when alive and and how they were slaughtered.

00:24:17.815 --> 00:24:21.815
Prof. Michael Foley: What impact the the pesticides used on our produce have on the environment,

00:24:22.615 --> 00:24:26.615
Prof. Michael Foley: and whether the workers who harvest our crops for us are fairly

00:24:26.615 --> 00:24:27.895
Prof. Michael Foley: compensated.

00:24:27.895 --> 00:24:31.895
Prof. Michael Foley: Again, these are valid concerns, and I do not belittle them.

00:24:33.150 --> 00:24:37.150
Prof. Michael Foley: As a matter of fact, I contend that it is even worse than

00:24:37.310 --> 00:24:38.750
Prof. Michael Foley: most people think.

00:24:38.750 --> 00:24:42.750
Prof. Michael Foley: If I choose to be vegetarian because I deplore the methods of modern

00:24:42.990 --> 00:24:46.990
Prof. Michael Foley: commercial ranching And for me, that one of those two statements is true.

00:24:47.115 --> 00:24:51.115
Prof. Michael Foley: I do deplore the methods of modern commercial ranching, but I'm not a vegetarian.

00:24:52.875 --> 00:24:56.875
Prof. Michael Foley: But let's say I chose to be a vegetarian because I deplored those methods.

00:24:57.350 --> 00:25:01.350
Prof. Michael Foley: I must still consider the insects killed by harmful pesticides to protect

00:25:01.430 --> 00:25:05.030
Prof. Michael Foley: my food and the effect of those chemicals on the soil, the water, and

00:25:05.030 --> 00:25:07.270
Prof. Michael Foley: the thickness of bird eggs.

00:25:07.270 --> 00:25:11.270
Prof. Michael Foley: If I eat only organic vegetables, I still know that vegetables, like animals,

00:25:11.270 --> 00:25:15.270
Prof. Michael Foley: have mortal souls, according to Saint Thomas, and that I've taken a life

00:25:15.425 --> 00:25:17.025
Prof. Michael Foley: in order to save mine.

00:25:17.025 --> 00:25:20.145
Prof. Michael Foley: If I eat only fruits and nuts, which were never alive but the products

00:25:20.145 --> 00:25:24.065
Prof. Michael Foley: of living plants and trees, I must still acknowledge that these gardens, crops, and

00:25:24.065 --> 00:25:28.065
Prof. Michael Foley: orchards are protected by a system of violence, both natural

00:25:28.400 --> 00:25:32.400
Prof. Michael Foley: and artificial, by birds that devour depredating insects,

00:25:32.400 --> 00:25:36.400
Prof. Michael Foley: by hunters who keep the deer and feral hog populations at bay,

00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:40.560
Prof. Michael Foley: and by military industrial complex that keeps our agricultural land

00:25:40.720 --> 00:25:43.535
Prof. Michael Foley: safe from invasion.

00:25:43.535 --> 00:25:47.535
Prof. Michael Foley: And if I think historically, I cannot help but be saddened by the unjust

00:25:47.535 --> 00:25:51.535
Prof. Michael Foley: manner in which those lands were taken from their native inhabitants.

00:25:52.975 --> 00:25:56.975
Prof. Michael Foley: It is always the case, as Augustine puts it, that one

00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:59.800
Prof. Michael Foley: creature of God feeds upon another.

00:25:59.800 --> 00:26:03.800
Prof. Michael Foley: And east of Eden, this feeding is tied inevitably

00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:08.440
Prof. Michael Foley: to a world that is red in tooth and claw and red from

00:26:08.520 --> 00:26:10.735
Prof. Michael Foley: the blood of Abel.

00:26:10.735 --> 00:26:14.735
Prof. Michael Foley: To put it simply, no matter how hard we scrub

00:26:14.815 --> 00:26:18.815
Prof. Michael Foley: our organic apples, there is still moral dirt on them.

00:26:19.375 --> 00:26:23.230
Prof. Michael Foley: Did I rub that in too much?

00:26:23.230 --> 00:26:24.510
Prof. Michael Foley: I do have some happy news, though.

00:26:24.510 --> 00:26:28.510
Prof. Michael Foley: I believe there's a partial solution to this complication and then a

00:26:28.510 --> 00:26:30.670
Prof. Michael Foley: more complete solution.

00:26:30.670 --> 00:26:34.670
Prof. Michael Foley: The partial solution is to privilege food that you yourself have raised or harvested,

00:26:35.945 --> 00:26:39.945
Prof. Michael Foley: such as fruits and vegetables from your garden, animals that you have farmed, ranched,

00:26:39.945 --> 00:26:41.625
Prof. Michael Foley: or hunted.

00:26:41.625 --> 00:26:45.465
Prof. Michael Foley: And I do say yes to hunting because I'm in Texas.

00:26:45.465 --> 00:26:49.065
Prof. Michael Foley: And it's also arguably more ethical to hunt for your food than to shop

00:26:49.065 --> 00:26:53.065
Prof. Michael Foley: for it given the methods of modern commercial

00:26:53.120 --> 00:26:56.400
Prof. Michael Foley: hunting, ranching.

00:26:56.400 --> 00:27:00.400
Prof. Michael Foley: There's a great author of a show called MeatEater

00:27:00.560 --> 00:27:02.875
Prof. Michael Foley: by Steve Ranella.

00:27:02.875 --> 00:27:06.875
Prof. Michael Foley: He aptly describes the complex emotions that come with killing an animal

00:27:07.035 --> 00:27:11.035
Prof. Michael Foley: for food as one of gratitude, reverence,

00:27:11.035 --> 00:27:15.035
Prof. Michael Foley: guilt, and indebtedness.

00:27:15.275 --> 00:27:19.275
Prof. Michael Foley: I call this solution, this partial solution, the Wendell Berry

00:27:19.330 --> 00:27:22.290
Prof. Michael Foley: solution, a famous author.

00:27:22.290 --> 00:27:24.930
Prof. Michael Foley: He has a great line.

00:27:24.930 --> 00:27:28.930
Prof. Michael Foley: To live, we must daily break the body

00:27:29.570 --> 00:27:33.570
Prof. Michael Foley: and shed the blood of creation.

00:27:33.825 --> 00:27:37.825
Prof. Michael Foley: When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently,

00:27:37.905 --> 00:27:40.065
Prof. Michael Foley: it is a sacrament.

00:27:40.065 --> 00:27:44.065
Prof. Michael Foley: When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively,

00:27:44.145 --> 00:27:48.145
Prof. Michael Foley: it is a desecration.

00:27:48.620 --> 00:27:52.460
Prof. Michael Foley: I am fond of the Wendell Berry solution,

00:27:52.460 --> 00:27:56.460
Prof. Michael Foley: but it is only a partial solution in my opinion

00:27:56.460 --> 00:28:00.460
Prof. Michael Foley: because it cannot be practiced by everyone and because it does not

00:28:00.675 --> 00:28:04.195
Prof. Michael Foley: by itself remove all the moral stains mentioned above.

00:28:04.195 --> 00:28:07.475
Prof. Michael Foley: Wendell Berry wants everyone to live on a farm, which is great, but we're

00:28:07.475 --> 00:28:09.155
Prof. Michael Foley: not gonna be able to all do that.

00:28:09.155 --> 00:28:09.555
Prof. Michael Foley: Right?

00:28:09.555 --> 00:28:12.860
Prof. Michael Foley: So it is a partial solution.

00:28:12.860 --> 00:28:16.860
Prof. Michael Foley: I think a more complete solution is what I call the saving private

00:28:17.260 --> 00:28:19.420
Prof. Michael Foley: Ryan solution,

00:28:19.420 --> 00:28:23.420
Prof. Michael Foley: which I have named after Steven Spielberg's nineteen ninety eight blockbuster.

00:28:23.980 --> 00:28:27.705
Prof. Michael Foley: In the movie, several men die in order to save the life of private

00:28:27.705 --> 00:28:30.825
Prof. Michael Foley: James Ryan played by Matt Damon.

00:28:30.825 --> 00:28:34.825
Prof. Michael Foley: The dying words of the last man, captain John h Miller, Tom Hanks,

00:28:35.385 --> 00:28:39.385
Prof. Michael Foley: to private Ryan are, James,

00:28:39.385 --> 00:28:41.390
Prof. Michael Foley: earn this.

00:28:41.390 --> 00:28:43.470
Prof. Michael Foley: Earn it.

00:28:43.470 --> 00:28:47.470
Prof. Michael Foley: Decades later, an old James Ryan stands in front of Miller's

00:28:47.870 --> 00:28:50.590
Prof. Michael Foley: grave and says,

00:28:50.590 --> 00:28:54.030
Prof. Michael Foley: every day, I think about what you said to me that day on the

00:28:54.030 --> 00:28:55.305
Prof. Michael Foley: bridge.

00:28:55.305 --> 00:28:58.505
Prof. Michael Foley: I tried to live my life the best I could.

00:28:58.505 --> 00:29:00.505
Prof. Michael Foley: I hope that was enough.

00:29:00.505 --> 00:29:04.505
Prof. Michael Foley: I hope that at least in your eyes, I've earned what

00:29:04.665 --> 00:29:08.665
Prof. Michael Foley: all of you have done for me.

00:29:09.110 --> 00:29:12.630
Prof. Michael Foley: I bring up the example of private Ryan not in order to draw a

00:29:12.630 --> 00:29:16.630
Prof. Michael Foley: moral equivalency between the death of soldiers and the consumption of meat,

00:29:17.350 --> 00:29:20.025
Prof. Michael Foley: but to put things in perspective.

00:29:20.025 --> 00:29:24.025
Prof. Michael Foley: Like it or not, we are all beneficiaries of blood

00:29:24.185 --> 00:29:26.505
Prof. Michael Foley: shed for us.

00:29:26.505 --> 00:29:30.505
Prof. Michael Foley: From the fallen heroes of our armed forces to Jesus Christ on the cross.

00:29:31.960 --> 00:29:35.480
Prof. Michael Foley: If a pig or a cow or even a carrot must die in order

00:29:35.480 --> 00:29:39.480
Prof. Michael Foley: for us to live, then let us earn it

00:29:39.720 --> 00:29:42.920
Prof. Michael Foley: by living our lives the best that we can.

00:29:42.920 --> 00:29:46.920
Prof. Michael Foley: There should be something sobering about knowing that we are

00:29:47.025 --> 00:29:49.425
Prof. Michael Foley: at the top of the food chain.

00:29:49.425 --> 00:29:53.425
Prof. Michael Foley: Rather than make us arrogant and triumphant, it should fill us with a

00:29:53.425 --> 00:29:57.265
Prof. Michael Foley: sense of unworthiness and humility and purpose.

00:29:57.265 --> 00:30:01.265
Prof. Michael Foley: For to whom much is given, much is expected.

00:30:02.090 --> 00:30:06.090
Prof. Michael Foley: I end with a personal memory that exemplifies both the Wendell

00:30:06.170 --> 00:30:09.450
Prof. Michael Foley: Berry and Saving Private Ryan solutions.

00:30:09.450 --> 00:30:13.415
Prof. Michael Foley: One year, I asked a farmer friend if I could buy a goose from

00:30:13.415 --> 00:30:16.455
Prof. Michael Foley: him for our Christmas dinner.

00:30:16.455 --> 00:30:20.455
Prof. Michael Foley: He told me that I could have the goose for free on one condition.

00:30:21.095 --> 00:30:25.095
Prof. Michael Foley: I had to slaughter it and dress it myself.

00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:29.400
Prof. Michael Foley: In encouraging the virtues of hands on husbandry,

00:30:29.560 --> 00:30:33.000
Prof. Michael Foley: my friend was promoting the Wendell Berry solution.

00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:34.280
Prof. Michael Foley: And it worked.

00:30:34.280 --> 00:30:38.280
Prof. Michael Foley: We ate that goose on Christmas with a reverence that we would

00:30:38.515 --> 00:30:42.515
Prof. Michael Foley: not have had if we had bought it dressed and packaged

00:30:42.675 --> 00:30:44.995
Prof. Michael Foley: at H E B.

00:30:44.995 --> 00:30:48.995
Prof. Michael Foley: When my wife later thanked my friend for his generosity,

00:30:48.995 --> 00:30:50.915
Prof. Michael Foley: he replied, oh, no.

00:30:50.915 --> 00:30:52.250
Prof. Michael Foley: Not at all.

00:30:52.250 --> 00:30:56.170
Prof. Michael Foley: It was an honor for this goose to end up on the Foley's Christmas

00:30:56.170 --> 00:31:00.170
Prof. Michael Foley: table rather than to die of old age or be killed by a

00:31:00.170 --> 00:31:02.810
Prof. Michael Foley: coyote.

00:31:02.810 --> 00:31:05.290
Prof. Michael Foley: An honor.

00:31:05.290 --> 00:31:08.705
Prof. Michael Foley: I am not sure that if we'd asked the goose, he would have told

00:31:08.705 --> 00:31:12.305
Prof. Michael Foley: us that it was an honor, that he would be willing to forego.

00:31:12.305 --> 00:31:15.185
Prof. Michael Foley: But

00:31:15.185 --> 00:31:17.105
Prof. Michael Foley: nevertheless,

00:31:17.105 --> 00:31:21.105
Prof. Michael Foley: it is an honor and ennoblement for the

00:31:21.105 --> 00:31:25.105
Prof. Michael Foley: lower to participate in the higher.

00:31:25.800 --> 00:31:29.800
Prof. Michael Foley: When goose flesh becomes human flesh, it becomes part

00:31:29.880 --> 00:31:31.960
Prof. Michael Foley: of a higher reality,

00:31:31.960 --> 00:31:35.320
Prof. Michael Foley: that which we call the temple of the holy spirit.

00:31:35.320 --> 00:31:39.320
Prof. Michael Foley: This is true even when goose flesh nourishes thieves and other scoundrels.

00:31:40.705 --> 00:31:44.705
Prof. Michael Foley: For even the worst of sinners continue to bear the image of God,

00:31:45.185 --> 00:31:49.185
Prof. Michael Foley: and their bodies continue to participate in that ontological dignity.

00:31:49.985 --> 00:31:53.985
Prof. Michael Foley: And the holier the person is, the truer this principle is.

00:31:54.640 --> 00:31:58.640
Prof. Michael Foley: Consider the singular honor bestowed upon the little lamb

00:31:58.800 --> 00:32:02.320
Prof. Michael Foley: that was our lord's last supper

00:32:02.320 --> 00:32:06.320
Prof. Michael Foley: to feed the son of god.

00:32:07.135 --> 00:32:10.095
Prof. Michael Foley: My friend's way of seeing things, in other words, is an example of the

00:32:10.095 --> 00:32:12.095
Prof. Michael Foley: Saving Private Ryan solution.

00:32:12.095 --> 00:32:16.095
Prof. Michael Foley: Both science and common sense tell us that animals, including us

00:32:16.335 --> 00:32:20.300
Prof. Michael Foley: rational animals, live off the deaths of others.

00:32:20.300 --> 00:32:24.300
Prof. Michael Foley: Rather than bemoan this fact of life or try to circumvent it, we

00:32:24.380 --> 00:32:28.220
Prof. Michael Foley: should live our lives worthy of these sacrifices.

00:32:28.220 --> 00:32:32.220
Prof. Michael Foley: Let us eat to keep the animal department of our nature functioning, and

00:32:32.285 --> 00:32:36.285
Prof. Michael Foley: let us conduct ourselves in a way that our position as

00:32:36.365 --> 00:32:40.365
Prof. Michael Foley: apex predators bears spiritual fruit.

00:32:40.525 --> 00:32:44.525
Prof. Michael Foley: One of the benefits of mindful eating is that it beckons us

00:32:44.605 --> 00:32:48.605
Prof. Michael Foley: to a higher calling of redeeming our destruction and assimilation

00:32:49.130 --> 00:32:53.130
Prof. Michael Foley: of the lower by living according to what is highest in us

00:32:53.450 --> 00:32:56.170
Prof. Michael Foley: and what is higher than us.

00:32:56.170 --> 00:33:00.170
Prof. Michael Foley: Goose flesh has become our flesh, and our flesh through

00:33:00.305 --> 00:33:04.305
Prof. Michael Foley: a proper reception of the blessed sacrament is being incorporated

00:33:04.385 --> 00:33:08.145
Prof. Michael Foley: into the Eucharistic flesh of the risen Lord.

00:33:08.145 --> 00:33:12.145
Prof. Michael Foley: Let us earn the sacrifice that our Lord and his creation

00:33:12.385 --> 00:33:13.880
Prof. Michael Foley: have made for us.

00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:17.880
Prof. Michael Foley: Let us become better lovers of god, self, and neighbor fueled

00:33:17.880 --> 00:33:21.320
Prof. Michael Foley: by Eucharistic animal and vegetable life.

00:33:21.320 --> 00:33:24.040
Prof. Michael Foley: Thank you.

00:33:24.040 --> 00:33:28.040
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